Ravi Toor – Year in Enterprise 2015

Keen to study at the University of Leeds, Ravi Toor originally planned on studying economics, but changed his mind and applied through clearing for the BA Environment and Business course. The degree programme combines the study of environmental and sustainability issues with sound business and management practice. It is concerned with the pressures and opportunities facing business as a result of the contemporary environmental and corporate social responsibility agendas.

Ravi explained how he got into the industry: “I noticed a good margin on the 3D printers… so I started selling the printers along with the materials that go with them. However, I noticed a lot of the materials were coming from China, so I saw a gap in the market for European suppliers and decided to go for it.”

“I’ve always wanted to start my own business… I was 15 when I first started buying and selling iPod and iPhone accessories online. I find buying and selling things really exciting. The opportunities are endless,” said Ravi.

Finding the Year in Enterprise advertised on the Centre for Enterprise and Entrepreneurship Studies website, Ravi decided to apply and was successful. Following this he has also just been awarded the Enterprise Scholarship, which gives him access to business support and mentoring from Spark along with £3000 worth of funding.

As part of his degree programme, Ravi has studied two of the Enterprise discovery modules: Entrepreneurship in Theoryand Practice and Understanding Social Enterprise. “The Enterprise modules were really great as they gave me an understanding about the theory behind entrepreneurship; something that I’m keen to implement.”

Looking to the future, Ravi hopes to get involved in the Enterprise society within the Students’ Union and, after university, hopes to develop and grow his company even further, perhaps even being a 3D printer supplier for PC World or Maplin.